The Walking Dead has a huge mid-season finale

The Walking Dead, which had an incredible season debut on October 14, is still going like gangbusters.

In fact, the ratings for its mid-season finale are stellar: 10.5 million viewers. The season debut of The Walking Dead immediately made it the biggest hit of the fall TV season, bringing in 10.9 million, and the mid-season finale show wasn’t far behind.

We also reported on TGthat the first issue of Walking Dead sold online for $10,000, so it goes without saying that Dead is absolutely on fire these days. As a report on The Wrap notes, "Networks could learn a lot from The Walking Dead," and they may indeed want to take notes because Dead is beating the crap out of the competition.

The Wrap says what makes the Walking Dead great is "its unpredictability," not to mention they also cut out the backstory of how the walkers happened, unlike a lot of horror films that do pointless prequels. The show keeps it simple, but good simple, and it also leaves room for debate. "Shows dream of sparking the kind of online debates that make non-viewers want to join the fun," The Wrap writes. "The Walking Dead takes it as a given that viewers will go online for answers."

It’s refreshing to see a show or a movie that doesn’t patronize its audience, and as Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara said, “The audience figures things out. They’re smart. They don’t need to be spoon-fed.” People are so into it, they really believe the zombies are going to attack. Mazzara told The Hollywood Reporter, "People buy a zombie apocalypse. People are really getting ready for it."

The Walking Dead will be back with us in February 2013, and Mazzara continued to the Reporter, “What’s exciting about The Walking Dead is that people feel like they’re playing a game. They get to put themselves into situations and thank about would I shoot that guy, would I get away, all of that. And here’s an active way for people to be in that world.”